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NTA OB Van Contract: House of
Reps Commends
BPP’s Role
Newsdiaryonline Tue March 1,2011
Nice words of commendation
have come from the Federal House of Representatives to the
Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for its above board roles in
the controversy that surrounded the Nigeria Television Authority
(NTA) OB van purchase.
Chairman of the House of
Representative committee on Information and National
Orientation, Mr. Ahmed Aliyu Wadada said onTuesday that the
Bureau obviously lived up to expectations by abiding by its
enabling law in the management of the procurement processes
which eventually ensued that government got value for money in
the entire processes.
In a letter he signed, dated
28th February, 2011 and addressed to the
Director-General of the Bureau, Engr. Emeka Ezeh, Mr. Wadada
stressed they are able to commend the Bureau following the
conclusion of their investigation and hearing.
“The Committee”, he
continued, “noted with satisfaction the role of your esteemed
organisation-The Bureau of Public Procurement. The Committee is
of the strong opinion that you have no doubt lived up to
expectations”.
He went further: “In the
light of the above, I am delighted to hereby, appropriately
convey to your good self in particular, and to your entire
agency-the Bureau in general, the committee’s commendation for a
job well done. While I congratulate you, may I urge you to keep
up with the good path, please”.
It will be recalled that a
dimension of the controversy happened when the Federal Executive
Council approved the award of contract for the Upgrading and
Renovation of Broadcast Equipment for FIFA World Youth
Championship (NIGERIA 2009) in favour of Messrs WTS-Sony.
While figures conflicted, the
contract was averaged to be around ₦8,202,077,908.86, with 15
percent funding from NTA's Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
being ₦1, 230,311,686.25, and contractor finance of 85 percent
from WTS-Sony, being ₦6,971,766,222.11 (inclusive of payment of
5 percent interest per annum) to be paid over a period of 24
months with three months moratorium, with 8 weeks as the
completion period.
The Federal Government spent
about $28 million to upgrade 8 x 10 camera Standard Television
OB vans for the All Africa Games. This included International
Broadcast Centre (IBC) microwave links, earth stations and
Digital Satellite vehicles in the same Standard TV formats.
Standard definition
television (SDTV) provides a picture quality of a lower
resolution to High Definition.
The Bureau had had to
intervene in the controversy following reported shoddiness in
the procurement process, which necessitated a conciliation of an
earlier process for a new and satisfactory one in line with the
stipulations of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
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